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This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

Defector

David Roth

An Enchanted Tools robot called the Mirokai is displayed during the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show CES in Las Vegas.

Podcasts

The Future Feels Like The Raiders, With Ed Zitron

Columnist. Author of many <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Drew-Magary/e/B001JS8R52/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1">fine works of literature</a>, including Point B. Handsomest man in the world.

Drew Magary

LAS VEGAS, USA - JANUARY 06: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang delivers a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025, showcasing the company's latest innovations in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, on January 6, 2025. At the event, Huang unveiled advanced AI for training robots and cars, enhanced gaming chips, and Nvidia's first desktop computer, while also detailing how the company was expanding its data center AI technology to consumer PCs and laptops.

Funbag

AI Learned It By Watching You

Kelsey McKinney

An artistic interpretation of artificial intelligence, showing a stack of books surrounding a laptop with a pixelated face on it

The Machines

There’s No Shortcut To Publishing A Book

Barry Petchesky

Dubliners line the sidewalks waiting for a Halloween parade that will never begin.

Thousands Turn Out For Nonexistent Halloween Parade Promoted By AI Listing

A Pre-Election Dog Story For You, The Dog Fan

charismatic megafauna (they/them)

Sabrina Imbler

a giant red-eyed tree frog sculpture at the rainforest cafe

Life's Rich Pageant

Who Lives At The Rainforest Cafe?

Rachelle Hampton

Portrait of professional road racing cyclist David Millar taken on May 16, 2011. (Photo by Joby Sessions/Procycling Magazine via Getty Images)

Arts And Culture

Writing Is An Act, Not An Aesthetic

Luis Paez-Pumar

Presentation by two secretaries of the typing robot at the exhibition 'Happiness in the office', in Paris, France, on October 13, 1960.

ESPN Masks Cynical AI Pivot As Benevolent Coverage Of “Underserved” Sports

Argentina, Patagonia, Rio Pinturas, Cueva de las Manos

Whatever AI Looks Like, It’s Not

Justin McHenry is an archivist and historian from West Virginia, and the author of <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/lemuria-the-true-story-of-a-fake-place/19663689">Lemuria: A True Story of a Fake Place</a> and the upcoming book, <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/raising-philadelphia-the-making-of-america-s-first-great-city-1750-1775-justin-mchenry/20390701?ean=9781955041201">Raising Philadelphia: The Making of America&#8217;s First Great City</a>.

Justin McHenry

MILL CREEK, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 6: Smoke shrouds Mt. Shasta as the Park Fire burns on August 6, 2024 in Mill Creek, California. (Photo by Ethan Swope/Getty Images)

History

How AI Copyright Law Is Being Guided By Spirits From Atlantis

jacked man with midlength hair sittting at a laptop

Why is AI Jesus So Fucking Jacked?

Al Michaels looks at an iPhone prior to the game between the Tennessee Titans and the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau on November 17, 2022.

Media Meltdowns

AI Is Now Advanced Enough To Blow Al Michaels’s Mind

A robot using artificial intelligence is displayed at a stand during the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, on May 30, 2024. Humanity is in a race against time to harness the colossal emerging power of artificial intelligence for the good of all, while averting dire risks, a top UN official said. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

AI Isn’t Intelligent Until You And I Say So

Nicholas Russell is a writer from Las Vegas.

Nicholas Russell

Conner O'Malley performing in his latest stand-up special

Conner O’Malley’s New Special Exposes The Dark Heart Of Techno-Optimism

Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks during the Stanford Business, Government, and Society Forum at Stanford University in April of 2024.

Google’s Got Nothing But Wrong Answers

Patrick Redford

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 12: Sam Altman speaks onstage during A Year In TIME at The Plaza Hotel on December 12, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for TIME)

Capital

Sam Altman’s Scarlett Johansson Whoopsie Is The True Future Of AI

Lauren Theisen

Announcements

Defector Media Promotes Devin The Dugong To Chief AI Officer, Unveils First AI-Generated Blog

New York City Mayor Eric Adams smiles and gives a thumbs-up at an MTA event in January of 2023.

Does It Matter That AI Doesn’t Work?

artistic rendering of color palates using flowers

Only You Can Find Your Best Color

A screenshot of one of the scammy AI-generated listings on Amazon; the product's name is just the boilerplate apology text created by OpenAI when it's asked to do something it can't do.

The Future Of E-Commerce Is A Product Whose Name Is A Boilerplate AI-Generated Apology

Dan McQuade was a founding member of Defector. He died in January 2026.

Dan McQuade

The logo for Wondery's THE LEAD: STARTING FIVE

Journalismism

Wondery Sports Podcast Now Has An AI Host Named Striker

A coffee table with some Vogue magazines on it, and a Sports Illustrated on top. It's the famous "Why the University of Miami should drop football" cover but it's been edited to say "Why it's hard to play volleyball without a volleyball."

Scorn Illustrated

SUN VALLEY, IDAHO - JULY 11: Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, speaks to the media as he arrives at the Sun Valley Lodge for the Allen &amp; Company Sun Valley Conference on July 11, 2023 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Every July, some of the world's most wealthy and powerful businesspeople from the media, finance, technology and political spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive weeklong conference. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

What The Shit Is Happening With OpenAI And Sam Altman? An Explainer

Staff Writer
Find me on Signal @DefectorChris.19

Chris Thompson

A Color Star logo over the phrase, "We Provide Entertainment To Our Customers"

Color Star Is Circling The Color Drain

Samer Kalaf

A screenshot of Gizmodo Bot's author page, with one bad Star Wars blog

ai